Secret Service agents broke into a Massachusetts salon to open the salon’s bathroom to the public during a recent fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris, forcing the agency to issue an apology as the Secret Service continues to face public scrutiny in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
According to Business Insider, salon owner Alicia Powers said Secret Service agents taped over her security camera and broke into her salon without permission before allowing the public to use her business’s bathroom for approximately two hours and leaving the building unlocked.
Powers told Business Insider that she had decided to close her business during the event for security reasons.
“They had a bunch of people in and out of here doing a couple of bomb sweeps again – totally understand what they have to do, due to the nature of the situation,” Powers said. “And at that point, my team felt like it was a little bit chaotic, and we just made the decision to close for Saturday.”
A video recorded by Powers’ security camera shows a female Secret Service agent approaching the front door of the Massachusetts business, standing on a chair, and covering the security camera with duct tape.
“There were several people in and out for about an hour and a-half just using my bathroom, the alarms going off, using my counter, with no permission,” Powers told Business Insider. “And then when they were done using the bathroom for two hours, they left, and left my building completely unlocked, and did not take the tape off the camera.”
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The Secret Service incident has been met with widespread backlash online, forcing the Secret Service to issue an apology to Powers and publicly address the situation. “The US Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions,” a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News. “The Secret Service has since communicated with the affected business owner.”
The Secret Service spokesperson added, “We hold these relationships in the highest regard and our personnel would not enter, or instruct our partners to enter, a business without the owner’s permission.”
Contrary to the Secret Service’s statement, the building’s landlord, Brian Smith, confirmed that the Secret Service agents did not have permission to enter or use the salon, according to The Post Millennial.
Powers also told Business Insider that a spokesperson from the Secret Service’s Boston field office contacted her after the incident and acknowledged the agency’s poor conduct.
“He said to me everything that was done was done very wrong,” Powers stated. “They were not supposed to tape my camera without permission. They were not supposed to enter the building without permission.”
